Brussels, 02/03/2011 (Agence Europe) - As part of the European Year of Volunteering 2011 and the Hungarian Presidency of the EU, the EPP Group within the Committee of the Regions (CoR) will be holding an extraordinary meeting on Thursday 3 March in Gödöllõ, on the theme of “Cities and Regions Promoting Sport and Active Citizenship for Social Cohesion in Europe”. A declaration will be made on this subject by Hungarian ministers Miklos Soltesz (social policy) and Attila Czene (Sport), in addition to Hungarian MEPs Santiago Fisas Ayxela and Zoltan Bago, and Mary Davis, the regional president and director general of the Europe/Eurasia Special Olympic Games.
As a preliminary to the meeting, a delegation led by its president, Michael Schneider, will submit the EPP's written contribution to the Hungarian president and his minister for public administration and justice, Bence Retvari. This written contribution is addressed to the European spring summit and reflects the wish to see multilevel governance put into practice in the form of regional pacts. It also calls for a definition and implementation of the EU2020 strategy.
The EPP considers that sport and active citizenship can help improve the quality of life of citizens. It also considers that sport and volunteering contain a potential for helping reach the EU2020 strategy objectives, by way of action to promote social inclusion, education and training. (G.B./transl.fl)